《a Lesson in iron》大贤者の娱乐说书(完)
前情提要:学姐与他的儿子们在追击兽人战舰时发现了一艘不明战舰,而这艘战舰与铁手军团的战舰高度相似,现在他们准备登上这艘战舰一探究竟

登上战舰的铁手们在各个地区摸索着,这里即熟悉而又陌生的场景让铁手们很是不适,而就在这时,一个中士Boros脱离了军团的通讯系统,在寻找他的时候,“异形”(Demon)出现了,袭击了铁手的小队,这“异形”在铁手的眼里可玄乎了,射向它的爆弹全部都穿过了他的躯体并且没有造成任何伤害。当然了,最后还是用链锯剑把这个“异形”给干掉了,这只“异形”杀死数个铁手战士。
‘Behind you.’
“我在你身后。”
The sound of Sergeant Boros’ voice pulled him short.
Boros士官的声音将沙力克从战斗的余韵中拉了回来。
He turned around, and immediately gasped as he felt something strike through his chest carapace, through his chest, carving his primary and secondary hearts, and erupt from his back plate. He looked down, growing dizzy, to see himself impaled by a bone-spear of sputtering energy. He felt cold, as though opened to the void.
他转过身来,但是立刻倒抽了一口凉气,因为他感到有什么东西击穿了他的胸甲,穿过他的胸膛,穿刺了他的主心和副心,并从他的盔甲板上刺而出。他低头一看,只感到头晕目眩,因为他看到了自己被一根溅射着能量的骨矛刺穿了身体。他现在感到无比冰冷,好似身体正直面着虚空的冰冷。
He could still hear the roar of Hektur’s chainsword, but it was dimming, changing, becoming the roar of something else altogether.
他现在仍能听到赫克托尔兄弟链锯剑的轰鸣声,但它正在逐渐变小,直到完全被别的东西的轰鸣声所覆盖。

现在我们将视角转回学姐这边,学姐来到了这艘战舰连接舰桥的前厅,当他们准备打开大门进入舰桥时,一旁的控制装置引起了他的注意,这被切除脑叶的机仆控制系统让费鲁斯直呼“神秘主义”,他在行进时接收着从各个地方传来的零星战斗报告,一种不祥的感觉一直萦绕在他的心头
打开大门后,在指挥平台上,费鲁斯看到他未来的子嗣
It was clearly a legionary of the Iron Hands, the Clan Raukaan and Legion markings on his armour confirmed it – but he had been butchered, pulled apart and put back together in the crudest way imaginable, the base mechanics of what made a legionary maintained at the expense of the perfection that the Emperor had crafted into His children’s flesh. It reminded Ferrus of greenskin work: powerful, functional, ugly. The runaway reconstructive surgery had left little of the wearer’s original armour intact, but what remained was unusually baroque in design, engraved with unfamiliar symbols and of a pattern that did not conform to any iteration of Legiones Astartes armour.
这显然是铁手军团的阿斯塔特,他盔甲上的洛坎氏族和军团标记证实了这一点--但他被分解了,以可以想象的最粗糙的方式被拆开并重新组装起来,以牺牲帝皇在他孩子们的肉体中精心打造的完美为代价,换装了他体内的机械装置。这让费鲁斯想起了绿皮的行为逻辑:强大、实用、丑陋。这场失控的重构手术几乎没有留下佩戴者原来的盔甲,但剩下的是异常巴洛克式的设计,刻有陌生的符号,图案也不属于任何阿斯塔特军团盔甲。
‘If I might tender an extrapolation,’ Xanthus muttered. ‘The warp is known to render space and even time mutable. Is it possible, under such a conjecture, that a Tenth Legion vessel could have become snared in this warp anomaly at some indeterminate point in the future, only to emerge – for want of a more appropriate immetereological nomenclature – now?’
“如果我可以提供一个推断。”桑塔斯嘟囔道:“众所周知,亚空间可以使空间甚至时间产生异变。在这样的猜想下,第十军团的船只是否有可能在未来某个不确定的时间点被卷入了这个亚空间异常点,而现在才出现--因为这里时间是不可杂乱无序的?
Ferrus looked down at the bionically abused corpse.
费拉斯低头看了看那具被生化仿生技术摧残的尸体。
An ugly future.
丑陋的未来
‘Not while I live.’
“在我活着的时候一定不会发生。”
最后,费鲁斯在撤离时打算彻底摧毁这艘战舰,即使机械教贤者百般挽留,也无济于事
“这无视荣誉,原体大人。我们秉承逻辑性。想想两、三、四千年后的船只所能带来的技术进步。想想预知可能避免的灾难。”机械教贤者如此挽留
但费鲁斯只是想着
He afforded the wretched refuse of an Iron Hands legionary on the command platform one final look.
他最后看了一眼指挥平台上那个可怜的铁手军团的垃圾。
‘Whatever this future has to offer, magos, I will have no part of it.’
“不管这个未来会发生什么事,贤者,我都不会在其中。”
If Ferrus had one lesson for his children it would be that there was no such thing as defeat, provided there were lessons to be learned.
若是费鲁斯要给他的孩子们上一课的话,那就是这个世界没有失败这回事,只要你从能教训中学到东西。
全书完